Spiritual and
Ethical Issues in the Historical Books of Tanach;
SPIRITUAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES IN THE BEREISHIT STORIES These four books ostensibly are merely the history of Israel from the entry into the Promised Land until the destruction of the Temple and the temporary loss of independent statehood. In fact they are actually, in a specifically Jewish sense, the most deeply religious and spiritual books of the Bible. One does not have to be specifically Jewish to see or feel the religion and spirituality in the revelations of the prophetic writings or in the words of the Tehillim. They speak to all people, as evidenced by the fact that the Bible is still the world's bestseller and there are millions of non-Jews who regularly recite the Psalms. However, it is specifically and intrinsically Jewish to understand that G-d is revealed in the prosaic material, in the political, social and military events in the lives of ordinary men and women, kings and leaders that are described in the Nevim Rishonim. Here are described the ideology and religious thoughts in Judaism, while in Chronicles we have the purely historical. "Megilat Yaakov" [1] It was not merely a shidduch trip but very much a step to galut, presaging the galut of his descendants as foretold in the Brit Bein HaBetarim. His was galut, slavery and oppression that atoned for the deception, suffering and fraud used to obtain the blessings; mida keneged mida. His deception was repaid by Lavan's substituting Leah for the beloved and promised Rachel; "Leah answered Yaakov's angry accusation against her for being part of Lavan's deception: "Did you not tell your father, 'I am Eisav your first born'" (Bereishit Rabba 70:18). The material bounty promised him in Yitschak's blessing, only came to him through his own labor, subjected to the fraud of Lavan's repetitive changes in his salary and to the physical suffering, as he tells Lavan (Ber. 31:38-43). "Instead of the realization of the prophecy that the elder son would serve the younger, he prostrated himself seven times before his older brother and called him, my lord "(Radak). For the fear and trembling that his deception caused Yitschak, Yaakov was filled with fear and sorrow at the sight of Yosef's bloodied coat that was also the subject of deception (Zohar). All this suffering served to purify and cleanse Yaakov, so that the blessings of Avraham of Nation and of Land he was to receive directly from Hashem Himself; once now before his first galut and later before going down to Mitzraim. The most direct way from Beer Sheva, where Yaakov lived together with his parents, to Haran lies to the South of the Dead Sea, however, he goes on the path Beer Sheva - Bet El - Haran along which Avraham had come from Haran some 150 years earlier; later he was to make the same way via Shechem back from Haran. However, it was not merely because that way was well known to them but rather out of desire to gain spiritual guidance from Bet El that Avraham had sanctified, the way that passed through Har HaMoria sanctified by the Akeida. Knowing that he was going into galut and needed religious strengthening, he broke his journey to spend 14 years there in the yeshiva of Shem and Ever (Pesachim 87b). We could understand what happened to Yaakov on coming to Luz, that he renamed Bet El, in the simple sense of the text: "He stopped at the place". "Makom is the name of the place set aside in the town for visitors" (Soforno) or "A place well known, as Bet El was already known as a holy place in the days of Moshe" (Ibn Ezra). However, Chazal (Hulin 96b) pointed out that Makom refers to Har HaMoria as we know from, "Avraham saw the Makom from afar" (Ber. 32:4), when he went to the Akeida on Har HaMoria; as evidence of reverence for 'Makom' used in this sense, it appears here 5 times. Furthermore, 'vayifga' translated as particular or chanced, is used elsewhere in Tanach to mean prayer; Rabbi Hirsch translates this as impressed. The spiritual aspects of this place, irrespective of how we understand its naming, made it appropriate for Divine Revelation "He dreamt and beheld a ladder set up towards the ground and the top reached to heaven, angels were ascending and descending the ladder. …And G-d stood beside him". At Sinai, at Matan Torah, we read that the people stood at the bottom of the mountain, the mountain was aflame until the very heavens, Moshe went up and then it is written and Moshe descended the mountain, and Hashem descended on Sinai. "The gematria of Sinai is sulam" (Bereishit Rabba 68:12) "The angels of Eretz Yisrael who came to take leave of Yaakov ascended and those of Chutz laAretz descended in order to accompany and protect him" (Bereishit Rabba 68:12); "Why do we say, go in peace to the angels on Shabbat? Shabbat itself is protection, so when the Jew comes home on Shabbat he has no need of the angels. So too, when Yaakov came back home after the accompanying angels of Chutz laAretz departed there were no angels, since Eretz Yisrael itself protects" (Shem MiShmuel). "The ladder was only set on the ground, nitzav, not fixed there, motzav, for this ladder man himself has to erect and then when it stands fully erect then he himself is the ladder, for his body is below and the root of his soul above" (Sefat Emet). "Angels ascend with our prayers and descend with Hashem's answers; as Yaakov said: 'this is the gateway to heaven'" (Abarbanel). In the Sifri (Bamidbar 119) Rabbi Elazar HaKapar taught that the ladder represents the Temple and the sacrifices reach heaven and G-d is above the altar. "Hashem showed him the four kingdoms - Bavel, Greece, Persia and Rome - that would persecute and oppress Israel, arising to great power and descending into oblivion, but Malchut Shamayim would always be eternal" (Tanchuma). "The gematria of Sulam is 130 which is equal to mamon. Wealth is merely a ladder, if one's making and using wealth is kasher, then one raises it to heaven, but if not, then one merely remains with it on the ground" (Aharonu of Belz). "The sulam characterizes the cause and effect of all that happens in the world [to individuals, to nations and to Israel] and shows the connection between the upper [spiritual] and lower [material] worlds. They are all held and united in His hands, for in His will they arise and in His will they fall, as it is written: And Hashem was above him" (Baal HaBiur). In this revelation G-d re-affirmed to Yaakov that He would give to him the promise made to Avraham and to Yitschak, of a great nation and of Eretz Yisrael but also that He would protect Yaakov in galut and return him to the land from his exile; promises that were later made to Israel before galut Mitzrayim and before the destruction of the Temple, and that have sustained us in all our galuyot. This is installment #128 in Dr. Tamari’s series on “Tanach and its messages for our times” [The
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